1. Just as it slowly decomposes back into the earth it once was, it reminisces of what it used to be. Thinking of how there used to be a family in there to take care of it, to cherish it. What was once a place of memory and a loving home is now tattered to pieces, bits of dust scatter across the wind, housing mythical creatures, small critters, and the occasional human drifter. It tries to relive a part of its past glory, yet as it is stuck in it’s past, time moves on as it always has, unforgiving and unprejudiced. Still, it knows that things will never be the same, but it will never understand. Always still hoping that one day someone, or something, will truly rebuild it and make it a home again.

  2. For now, it is a home to organisms both microscopic and large. Moss has grown over the floorboards and mushrooms have sprouted up through the cracks. Termites and beetles feast on its bones. Resident chipmunks and rabbits dodge birds that swoop in through a hole in the ceiling. The birds take the beetles back to a strong nest built in the crumbling chimney for their offspring to devour. A circle of life plays out in this tiny, decaying ecosystem.

  3. It has been five years since I took over the abandoned house on Mott Street. It had been a struggle to bring the life back into my home, to fix its infrastructure and for the neighbors to invite me in with open arms. I spent the first three years building up the wood that had once been sprawled across the front porch, covered in critters that you can only imagine in your wildest dreams. And to this day, the animals still linger around the backyard and the vines full of spiders still hang over my bedroom window.

  4. I slither through the tall grass, living among the other animals who now reside here. I have watched this house for many years, watching humans sift through the rubble, finding anything they can refurbish or sell. The brave children dare each other to go deeper in the house, to try and prove if the stories are true, I slither through their feet to scare them, just for fun. The animals here do not fight, do not misuse the earth we were given, we live in harmony in the house taken for granted by the human. For it is better off that the humans stay away from this house as it belongs to the earth and the creators who can truly appreciate its beauty.

    1. Very fresh perspective: “The animals here do not fight, do not misuse the earth we were given, we live in harmony in the house taken for granted by the human.”√√

  5. The time has come to start a new. A make-over, a fresh start… Builders have poured into my hometown and have purchased lands & properties to reconstruct. New shops, pubs, diners are being built all around. Finally, someone has taken notice of the potential, the character and the beauty that this house occupies. Ultimately, with some love and care this house will stand tall, will shine and show its strength as it once did before. People will live in this home and create new memories, as other families created in the past when it once stood tall.

  6. The house was left to be forgotten about. Without people living inside the house and no upkeep, the house was unrecognizable. Growing up in that house left her distraught, she drove past to reminisce in her childhood memories of her brother. She later realized driving away that the home didn’t reflect her childhood anymore and moving away left the house empty. She returned to the house, feeling abandoned. She spent her entire childhood in that home with her brother. The passing of her brother was the reason she visited her home needing his presence. In the desperation of the moment, she lit a match to the house, finalizing the death of her brother. She later received a call alerting her of her father’s passing in a house fire, he was inside the home grieving.

  7. We were the same kids that played across the street of the abandoned house. We all feared this house based on all the stories that we were told as a threat, if one of us misbehaved. One day when we had all grown up, we no longer feared that house and wanted to rebuilt it. We appreciated it for being part of our childhood and for making us face our fears. We did this in hopes of inspiring other children to give back and appreciate where they came from.

  8. The spirit on the inside is a man who’s in his sixties. He unfortunately died of a heart attack seven years ago and has been there ever since. He only knows he has been deceased for the past couple years. Unaware of how much time actually passed, he spends his days fulfilling his last wish of being able to live life without the stress. He doesn’t feel alone and nervous for the future, he can now speak to the plants and animals’ souls, something he can never do in the living world. He has his morning routine and protects the kids on the street from any sort of danger. Once the house is occupied, he may go on his way.

  9. The house stands propped up on rotted wood and porous materials which have seemed to have lost the strength and durability which once characterized them. Memories are slowly fleeting within the community, producing a fable regarding who or what once resided within the confines of the clay and straw walls. There are signs placed around the property warning of prosecution to the fullest extent of the law for trespassing, yet adventurous people still wander the house trying to piece together the past from the what is contained within. On one exceptionally rainy night, the house creaked and squeaked as if it were on death’s door. As the rained poured upon the roof, the waterlogged wood buckled, leaving a once beautiful house ravaged, and with it’s ruination the memories of the past departed.

  10. There’s been many tales of this old abandoned house, all the towns people would avoid its presence. It’s been over a decade since it has been abandoned. The house is lifeless, no birds chirping, no squirrels playing and not even a ray of sunshine. At every open house, no one would purchase the house because it has been known that evil spirits resides. The realtor was the only one who would show up for the open house. The tale turned out to be truth, a couple was found dead just after few days in the house. For now, the abandoned house is better off in the darkness where no humans interfere.

    1. This is an interesting story line inspired by the abandoned house.
      The couple were found dead before or after the realtor showed up? This matters in your sequence of events. The paragraph sounds like a foundation for a short story. Also “evil spirits” normally translate into tangible forces in our daily lives, like the beast we talked about in Diasmine’s piece on “blue basin”.

  11. There’s this place and its surrounded by a gate, an access to our beloved ones. Reminiscing on the days before you left this earth. As you walk, you will pass mourners with tears in their eyes, being in this place can bring back a memory that’s engraved in our mind, despite how many years has passed by . Next to each tomb stone lies a place of residence in which no one is home. A loving son visits his father and lays a bouquet of flowers and says a prayer or maybe even speak through the whistling winds for minutes, then those minutes turn into hours. He visits his father’s tomb stone on special days such as anniversaries, birthdays, Christmas, Father’s day and Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). During the winter the tombstones are covered with snow under the clear blue sky. How can there be so much beauty in this place when everything is dead? Sometimes people can take advantage of life and miss the beauty it, just as a place that can be easily miss led by someone’s eye perception. Don’t let time pass you, hug your loved ones and live your life as if it was your last.

  12. Every time I past by this house, I always was curious to know as to what had happened. This place is torn apart completely with no hope left at it. People still walk by quickly but in fear to avoid the frightening stories that once was the talk of the town. Nobody knows who previously lived here for the house was abandoned decades ago. Time went on and it deteriorated day by day. Only to wait for a new owner to start a new life in it again.

  13. Looking back, I remember as little kid playing with my friends in this empty house. Hot summer days we would play hide and go seek. Running out outside panicking if we thought we heard a noise. As a teenager this abandoned house was perfect for my friends and I to hang out. No one knew we were here. It wasn’t too far from our homes, but it wasn’t close enough for our parents to find us here. Now as adults, we have gone our separate ways making the house feel more abandoned than it already was. As I stand in front of this house now, I wish I can go back to the hide and seek games, giving the animals in the backyard nicknames and food, and creating memories here.

  14. As the elder woman held onto her crane she looked at the house in front of her, With its aged features and its crumbling exterior she had no doubt about it, she could recognize it in a heartbeat. Her once beloved house in which she once lived in. Her eyes watered the emotions consuming her and she let them go. A hand helped her steadily walk forward.’ Is this it ?’ the voice asked. ‘Yes’ she whispered as her face and eyes light up for she had finally found what she had been searching for.

  15. You can tell this place has been abandoned for quite some time now. The grass and branches keep growing and growing, spreading around the house, going in and out the windows and the holes on the walls. The house itself has been destroyed by the power of time, however the house now symbolizes something for the people in this town. Local artists are starting to dig their hands into this mess to turn it into something people who pass by can appreciate and not be scared by the stories that are being told about the place.

  16. Days, months, years passed and the house in its skeletal form still stood. The treetops of ficus trees were now its roofs. Branches jutted of winds and cracks in the wall. Nature had made a new home within the ruins of the house. From the outside, the place looked stuffed with greenery, from the inside one might mistake it for a walled garden. The people around this place built other home and the town grew into a city. As civilization spread out, this hidden box of nature was left untouched. Maybe it was out of reverence or fear or sentiment no one was willing to disturb what nature had reclaimed.

    One night a loud crash came from the direction of the house, locals were awoken and startled from the noise. They venture out in the night and find the air is dusty, and shouting starts coming from the direction of the old house with. People say “look look.” The walls of the home finally fell into a pile of rubble. What the locals could now see how after all this time nature had not just reclaimed this place but rebuilt it. The ficus trees growing threw out the house made many branches where kids could climb and play. The hanging roots solidified into little caves to hide in. Among all the new buildings that were built around this place, nature had created a place for the people to reconnect with the land.

    1. Beautiful Warren!
      “Among all the new buildings that were built around this place, nature had created a place for the people to reconnect with the land.”√√

  17. Each time she go by this house. She generally get goosebumps. This house has been there for as long as anyone could recall, yet nobody sets out to go in it. She generally wondered who has lived in it. One day after a long day in 4th grade she pass by the house again to find herself at the gate of the creepy house. As a 9 years of age she was interested. All around the house is full with dead trees and blooms. So much residue that she began to sniffle. She took a stab at thumping at the entryway when the entryway gradually open and she saw a major breeze blow in the state of an individual. At the accurate minute she ran home and disclosed to her mom what she saw. Her mother told her never to dare return to that house again. You can guess by the face appearance she didn’t trust her. A long time later they move out and don’t have a clue what wound up happening to the dreadful house.

    1. Diasmine, if this closing line –“A long time later they move out and don’t have a clue what wound up happening to the dreadful house.”– means you are referring to a disaster that might befall in the future I see it as an interesting potential for a story. I also thought this sentence was the flesh of your story: ” a major breeze blow in the state of an individual”.

  18. Every time my grandfather spoke of this house, he describes it differently. He grew up around this place though its history was before his time too. I know he doesn’t really know its true past but every Sunday evening after family dinner he would sit on the creaky rocking chair, pull me up to his lap, and tell me that week’s version of that old abandoned spot. Sometimes, he would come up with silly versions like the one about the family of cats who walked on their hind legs and spoke old-time Latin and made fish flavored bread. In the bread-making mishap the house burnt down, spoiler alert the cats were safe. (I think that version was just to humor 5-year-old me.) Or the one about a young man who built the place completely from scratch for the man he loved but when the townspeople found out, they destroyed its every lively essence. Whatever version he told one time or the next, I reflect upon them now because after his passing, I see my grandfather as this house. Once strong and tall in their golden time then eventually taken by nature to be remembered by its best admirers.

    1. Another interesting perspective. Grandpa’s character seems fascinating. I wonder what would happen if you edit out this line: “I know he doesn’t really know its true past” and let us readers decide for ourselves.

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